MSU Communication Arts and Sciences Bldg. Rm 151, East Lansing

Thursday, February 23rd, 6pm

As a user experience professional, how can you use web analytics data to measure how well a site works for users and show the effectiveness of your work? This presentation describes a method for cutting through the complexity of web analytics by finding a way to link business goals to users’ tasks and then to specific, measurable behavior in analytics. This will make web analytics more useful to you and help you communicate more effectively with business stakeholders.

There are a wide variety of metrics available to you, from pageviews to bounce rate and more, and they are open to interpretation with regard to user motives. That’s where the concept of analytics goals comes into play, by giving you a way to easily measure how many users are performing certain actions.

It is essential to isolate specific actions that users could only have completed intentionally, ones where you can be reasonably sure they are fulfilling their own goals (and the business’ goals). This talk will discuss an approach to eliciting specific actions that are relevant to users and measurable with web analytics, and therefore appropriate to evaluating the usability of a website.

This presentation will be grounded in real-world examples. It is geared toward people familiar with analytics, but it will be understandable for the analytics-curious, with just enough of an introduction to web analytics to provide context.

Attendees at this session will:

Understand what can be measured with web analytics and what cannot be measured

Choose measurable user behavior that reflects the usability of a
website as well as business goals

About Our Speaker

Michael Beasley is the user experience team lead at Pure Visibility, an Internet marketing firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. He has built their UX practice and incorporated web analytics heavily into UX activities. Mike earned his MSI degree in human-computer interaction at the University of MIchigan School of Information, has been active in his local chapter of the UPA (even serving as president in recent years), and is the author of a recent article on web analytics for User Experience Magazine.

2 Responses to “Finding the Right Things to Measure with Web Analytics”

[...] MSU to host Web analytics program: Michigan State University will host a probram, “Finding The Right Things To Measure With Web Analytics,” on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. As a user experience professional, how can you use web analytics data to measure how well a site works for users and show the effectiveness of your work? This presentation describes a method for cutting through the complexity of Web analytics by finding a way to link business goals to users’ tasks and then to specific, measurable behavior in analytics. This will make Web analytics more useful to you and help you communicate more effectively with business stakeholders. Speaker Michael Beasley is the user experience team lead at Pure Visibility, an Internet marketing firm in Ann Arbor. He has built their UX practice and incorporated web analytics heavily into UX activities. The progrram will begin at 7 p.m. after networking and announcements in Room 151 of the MSU Communication Arts and Sciences Building. The cost is $5 for students, $8 for Usability Professionals Association members through Feb. 15 and $10 thereafter, and $15 for all others until Feb. 15 and $20 thereafter. Register at http://www.michiganupa.org/fresh/finding-the-right-things-to-measure-with-web-analytics. [...]